NHL Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Plays and Goalie Rankings – 3/13

If you’re a daily fantasy sports player you know there are few things more important than finding good value plays to compliment the higher priced guys. There’s usually no way you’ll finish in the money without a couple of low-salary guys producing above their salary.

Each day I’ll bring you a rundown of some players you may want to use in your daily leagues. They will include a few top plays (high salaried players a notch below the obvious choices – Crosby, Ovechkin, Neal, etc.), some mid level plays, and a good amount of the most important ones – value plays (players most likely to outperform their salary).

While I’ll feature different DFS sites as a guide for salaries each day, you’ll find that most sites will have the individual players on a similar salary scale.

I will also include overall goalie rankings for today’s games at the bottom of each post. The rankings are not based on salary, but just as an idea of how I feel each goalie will do compared to the other starters for the night.

Please note that with daily hockey there is constantly new information to consider. New line combos, late changes to starting goalies, healthy scratches, etc., are an everyday occurrence. Check back often for any updates.

Top Plays

G Ryan Miller – STL ($9,200) – Somewhat surprisingly, Miller isn’t the top salaried goalie tonight. There are some other fine options, but you have to like this play tonight. Miller has played a solid game since joining the Blues, and he faces a team that he is 6-0 in his career against. St. Louis has also dominated the Oilers recently and they’re by far the biggest NHL favorite in Vegas tonight. I’ll take my chances.

RW Phil Kessel – TOR ($7,600) – Kessel has four goals and 12 points over his last 10 games, so he’s doing pretty well lately. This is including his last game, where he was held point-less and was a minus-4. On Draft Kings, you don’t have to worry about negative points for being a minus, so that’s not an issue here. He will get his shots and they usually turn into some points. He’s my top forward play for the night.

Mid Level Plays

RW Ryan Callahan – TBL ($5,300) – Callahan is a player with a little added value on certain sites. Draft Kings counts blocked shots so I like to use some forwards that can not only contribute offensively, but also get some easy points by blocking shots. Callahan can do all of that: in his last 10 games he has seven points and 13 blocked shots. He also has a point in each of his last two games with his new team while firing six SOG and getting in the way of three shots, so it seems he’s comfortable with his new surroundings. The matchup makes him a pretty good choice.

LW Ondrej Palat – TBL ($5,200) – Callahan’s linemate has also been productive lately, putting up six goals and 11 points in his last 10 to go along with eight blocked shots. You’ll see in the value picks below that I took this full line tonight as the matchup is good. I usually stay away from too many players on one team/line in case they get shut down, but the prices (and the fact that they’ve played well together) made it hard to pass up.

LW Mats Zuccarello – NYR ($4,900) – Zuccarello still seems a bit undervalued so I took him. This is likely to be a low-scoring game, but Darcy Kuemper has looked (somewhat) human lately so a chance with the Rangers’ leading scorer, at this price, isn’t a bad play.

D Ryan Suter – MIN – ($5,100) – Another shot-blocker with offensive potential in one of my utility spots. Suter has just three points in his last 10, but his 25 blocked shots during that time means he can get you an easy point or two while still providing the potential for a couple of points. Considering all of his six goals this season and 19 of his 35 points have come at home, it’s a nice risk/reward play.

Value Plays

C Valtteri Filppula – TBL ($4,400) – I took both his wingers, so why not complete the line with a value center in Filppula. The matchup is nice, and the line has played well together. He has three goals and four points in three games this season and seven points in seven games over his career against Florida. He also has almost double his points output at home compared to road games this season (28 points to 15 on the road), so I’m hoping all those trends continue.

RW Marian Gaborik – LAK ($4,000) – Okay… I had him in my lineup but had some salary left so I upgraded a little bit. As long as he’s not producing his salary will keep dropping and I’ll keep using him (most nights). The Leafs give up a ton of shots and Gaborik should get his chances tonight. Hard to pass up top play potential at this price. If you need a bargain bin player, Gaborik is a decent chance to take.

D Jake Muzzin – LAK ($3,900) – Two goals, four points, 17 blocked shots, and 21 SOG over his last 10 games. You could do much worse at this salary. He’s facing a Toronto team that gives up the most shots on goal per game, so you have to think he’ll get his chances. As with other players on DK, the added value comes from the blocked shots.

D James Wisniewski – CBJ ($4,400) – More of the same here – offensive potential with defensive (blocked shot) numbers to pad the stats. My other choice here was Torey Krug who offers similar numbers (a couple more points with fewer blocks) but I ultimately went with Wis who is facing the 23rd ranked team for points against vs opposing defensemen compared to Krug, facing the 19th ranked team.

About Carlos Figueiredo

Carlos is the NHL Rankings and Content Editor for Dynasty Sports Empire.
He has been a hockey fan for as long as he can remember, and has been writing about hockey for over five years.
He is the owner / writer / editor for SpeakingoftheDevils.com and has also contributed work for various other hockey websites.
He has been playing fantasy sports since the days when you had to pull stats from USA Today the morning after games were played.

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